Welcome to Dr Lincoln's blog

Welcome for visiting my blog. Hope you enjoy the visit and always welcome back again. Have a nice day!

2010-05-27

Different referencing styles

Comments on Peter Friedman “Plagiarism and China’s future economic development”, 26/05/2010, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2010/05/26/plagiarism-and-chinas-future-economic-development/

I acknowledge that there are fundamental differences in values placed on community/country relative to individuals between China and East Asian countries as compared to West countries and that has been embedded in the education system.

There is no doubt about it in my mind and I interpret that as part of the differences in values between the two societies. I also expect that difference may play a role in shaping the future average of the “value” system for human beings.

In that sense, Peter Friedman has made an important contribution by pointing that out and highlighted.

However, that does not mean the whole education system in East Asia and China in particular is based on plagiarism and non-acknowledgement of inventions and ideas. That would be a gross over simplistic presentation and highly misleading.

I can just use two or three most famous and well known examples to show why that presentation is problematic and wrong. I guess most people with enough knowledge of China are likely to know Confucius, Marxism, Mao Zedong thought, including historical, foreign and indigenous ideas.

Few Chinese would dare not to acknowledge them and do plagiarism on them.

They show that the Chinese, even under communism, acknowledge property rights.

Some high profile plagiarism cases in the Chinese academic circle or at large are roundly firmly condemned in China, especially by many academic staff and intellectuals including students that can be seen from internet social or academic websites.

They are a disgrace, abnormal and represent a tiny element in Chinese intellectuals. They are equated to crime equivalent, in my view.

Having said that, I would like to argue that there is also a difference in the emphasis of referencing. While there is a tendance of insufficient referencing in some or most papers by Chinese authors, there is an equal tendance of “over” referencing by some western authors, in my view. Some of the references are unhelpful and probably irrelevant.

Referencing is seen as very important, especially for less well known authors so they “have” to show they have done enough research and are on top of the materials and the topics. So many publications may not have enough own real materials but use referencing to strengthen their reputation. That can be a potential problem for research, development and advance.

Of course, there is an equal danger in insufficient referencing on the other hand.

In short, I am not saying that Peter Friedman is completely wrong and as I said he made a useful contribution in understanding. But it should perhaps need to be pointed out what he presented is a small part of a whole and a partial story, although some difference in referencing is likely to firstly and strongly felt by people from the west or who are used to western style referencing, if one is observing enough.

No comments:

Post a Comment